Cain’s poll numbers drop, Rick Perry now most unpopular candidate

Herman Cain's hurting somewhat following sexual harassment allegations, but not nearly as much as Rick Perry. (AP Photos)

Herman Cain is finally starting to see his numbers slip following the intense media attention surrounding sexual harassment allegations against the former National Restaurant Association chief executive.

But while the latest poll provides bad news for Cain, it provides even worse news for Rick Perry.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released yesterday reveals 88 percent of Republican respondents have heard about the allegations, and they’re still split on whether they’re true. Thirty-nine percent think the allegations are true, and 37 percent think they’re not.

Regardless of whether they believe them or not, however, 14 percent of Republicans who have heard about the controversy actually think of Cain more favorably. Thirty-five percent of Republicans who’ve heard of the allegations think less favorably of Cain.

But the actual numbers don’t show a 35 percentage point drop for Cain. Fifty-seven percent of Republicans still think of him favorably–that’s down nine percentage points from the last Reuters/Ipsos poll, taken from Oct. 27-28. And 28 percent of Republicans think of him unfavorably, up eight percent from the last poll.

This is still six points lower than the 63 percent of Republicans who consider Mitt Romney favorably, but even he lost three points since October. And in true Romney fashion, the percentage of Republicans who think of him unfavorably hasn’t changed much either–it’s only risen one point, to 26 percent.

Rick Perry seems to have suffered the most over the past week — when national media attention focused on the governor’s unusually demonstrative speech in New Hampshire, which spawned several viral videos on YouTube. Only 47 percent of Republicans think of him favorably now–that’s 15 percent fewer than in October, which, in turn, was a big drop from September.

Over the past month, Republicans with negative views of Perry have jumped 11 percent. He now has the highest negative ratings of any Republican in the field — 38 percent.

And remember: This is just Republicans we’re talking about. Democrats (in Texas, at least) have never been fans of the governor.